This year's line-up of participants has changed quite a bit compared to last season. From a German-speaking perspective, Austria is now very well positioned: Juniors winner, wildcard holder and Fieberbrunn winner Max Hitzig and the re-qualified Valle Rainer will be there for the whole season. For Fieberbrunn there is a wildcard for Dennis Ranalter. Freestyler Ralph Welponer from South Tyrol could follow in the big footsteps of Markus Eder, as he received a wildcard at the last minute. Leo Slemett and 2022 overall snowboard winner Blake Moller have decided to skip the 2023 season and concentrate on mountain guide training (Slemett) and film projects (Moller). Victor de le Rue and Manuela Mandl, among others, have also canceled their participation in this year's tour due to injuries. Aymar Navarro, the driving force behind the tour stop in Spain, is once again taking part this year with a season wildcard. Finn Bilous will also be concentrating on the FWT for the entire season after his guest appearance in Fieberbrunn last year. Details on the field of riders and the new season can be found in the two current FWT podcasts, e.g. on YouTube and wherever else you can find podcasts.
FIS Freeride World Tour
Even if spectators won't notice much apart from the FIS logo this year: The takeover by the FIS is causing great unease among some, which is of course supported by examples from the past in related disciplines. Both freestyle snowboarding and the freeski disciplines with slopestyle and halfpipe have not necessarily attracted attention for their increased attractiveness for athletes and spectators following the restructuring by the FIS. Decisions were made by non-specialist officials over the heads of the athletes and attempts were made to re-regulate a subculture (snowboarding, freeskiing) that had developed out of rebellion against regulated association structures and to integrate it into association structures. With its Juniors, Qualifiers, Challenger and World Tour events, the FWT already represents a kind of association structure with an umbrella organization. Independent events representing freeriding have become increasingly rare in recent years anyway, most of them run under the FWT brand. You could see the FWT as a kind of existing FIS in contest freeriding. But perhaps there is also a counter-movement of people organizing freeride events, which have a freer, fun-focused ulterior motive than the well-structured, athletic professionalism that the FWT and ultimately the FIS seem to be striving for. Freeriding does not have to be a (competitive) sport that has to be performed according to a certain template. Breaking out of the rules and regulations offers the opportunity for interesting new formats.
Problems that the FWT already has will probably not get worse with the FIS. Perhaps with the FIS in the bag, it will be possible to find new resort partners that offer interesting venues and are also known for good snow conditions. The selection of the respective faces, the consistent inclusion of the two disciplines of skiing and snowboarding, the size of the field of participants could, for example, be called into question for a more marketable, shorter broadcast format if new sponsors and marketers are brought on board via the FIS.
